Marine Current Turbines have now racked up 1000 hours of export to the National Grid, as reported here.
MCT claims an average capacity factor of 66% for the period of operation. We have calculated a capacity factor, based on ROC register figures, which shows a steady(ish) increase to around 25% in November 2009. This calculated CF does not make any allowance for downtime, availability of marine mammal onservers, or (crucially for MCT) the limitations imposed by daylight-only working.
Since daylight in November is less than 50% of the time, and the trend is upwards, we can see that a claimed 66% capacity factor in December could be realistic.
If true, it's excellent news for the company and the technology, as it's always all about cost per MWhr, and more MWhrs means a better metric.
No comments:
Post a Comment